Topic: The Caligula Effect 2

Sadly there is no information whatsoever on the site which is unfortunate as just like Blue Reflection: Second Light, this game seems to be quite a redemption for the series. Anyway I just started on the hardest diffculty, fortunately it isn't locked to New Game+ like so many JRPGs.

I wasn't a fan of the first game. It lacked what I consider to be a basic turn-based rpg mechanic of rotating an assigned attack from an enemy that perished to an enemy that's still in active combat. It's annoying when planned attacks just whiff altogether. I haven't played an rpg that lacked that mechanic since the original Final Fantasy, lol.

Did they correct that here in the sequel or is it absent again?

Your attacks definitely can whiff, but they also really shouldn't if you play correctly because of how the battle system works. So far I really enjoy the combat, it's pretty intense on the highest difficulty.

Thanks for that bit of info, Sigma. That makes this an easy skip for me. I'll put that money towards Monark or the NIS Classics Vol. 2 instead.

I finished the game few days ago (nearly 100% but I skipped some of the most grind heavy side quests). Overall I think the game is super good and another great redemption for JRPG series after Blue Reflection. I wouldn't call it a must have title for all Switch owners, but it should be on a watchlist of every JRPG fan. The core ideas of the genre are still there but it brings a lot of creativity that is often missing. Caligula Effect does things differently but it also does them well.

The combat system is unique to the series, I however recommend playing at least on Hard difficulty so you actually get to experience it because on lower difficulties you can pretty much auto battle anything easily. Speaking of difficulty I played on Nightmare which is a fun challenge at start but soon you get too powerful and you are capable of one shotting several main story bosses as well. Basically the game has an Atlus difficulty curve where the game becomes easier over time which is bit of a shame.

There's huge amount of side lore and content that also includes some real topics that other games usually don't touch, side quests are generally on the simplistic side and the ones that aren't are good story wise but not amazing gameplay wise. Most of the side lore comes after you complete the quests and is completely optional. There is grind heavy post game content but I wasn't really interested in it so I can't really comment on that.

The performance of the game is fine but it drops frames like almost any other Switch game that came out recently. Music might split the audience because one of the premises of the game is that there are fairly long dungeons and there is the same J-POP song playing in them for many hours, so it might annoy some people. The boss remixes of the songs are real bangers tho.

Overall I'd rate the game 9/10 if I could (please NintendoLife add the game on page, it's quite a big one for not being here)